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Future Trends In Home Computing
James Bell writes: "I just read an interesting article over here that talked about future trends in home computing and what is and isn't driving the home computer market. I thought it was interesting that the author said that more people where adding DVD players and surround sound speakers to their home computer in hopes of makeing it their new home theater. I think a lot of people are bringing their computer to the home theater in the family or media room and converging it that way."
"I think a lot of people are bringing their computer to the home theater in the family or media room and converging it that way."
Yeah, drag the computer into the front room and keep it tied up with DVD or hifi (only one at a time, mind)....and drag the console into the bedroom to go online and play games....
No doubt after a few years of this some smart marketing type will go `I know! lets try and sell them PC`s they can go online and play games with, and also release a dedicated DVD player, and nice hifi systems....`
Gateway was ahead of its time. About 5 years ago they sold a home entertainment package built around a PC and a large screen TV. Price was steep and it did not catch on at the time.
Perhaps now is the time.
--- -- - -
Give me LIBERTY, or give me a check.
"Many people" may be bringing their computers into the living space to use as media players, but that doesn't mean that they are well-suited to that task.
Remotes? An optional, kludgy addition to a computer.
Sound quality? I'd rather not use stereo miniplug -> RCA jacks for sound, thanks. But that's what's on the majority of PCs.
Video quality? Acceptable, I'm sure, but what about the aforementioned remote control of all thos nifty features?
Stick with components - replace or upgrade pieces as needed - just like with your PC.
My Mom & Dad use a DVD enabled laptop, plugged into the living room stereo or taken up to the bedroom, to watch movies. Works like a charm. No reason to think they are unique.
sulli
RTFJ.
Even if you don't hook up surround sound speakers, moviing the computer into a family room would still be a good idea. Those people who complain about kids surfing to adult sites can be watching (even if it is an occasional glance away from the tv) what there kids are doing. Then maybe the story I heard earlier today about a third grader trading adult pictures for pokemon stuff wouldn't happen.
At the next eco-hypocrisy-meeting, count the private jets used to get to the meeting. Should be interesting to see that
"people where adding" but my question is were is it?
Nope. Keep my home computer in the home office/guest room... keep the home theater system in the living room. Now I'll go read the article and discover that I missed the point
Cheers!
Carl
I think this will really take off when big LCD TV's get cheap. I would definitly use a computer in my living room, but the screen resolution is not very good. With a flat HDTV connected to a computer, that would be great. When you can get a 32 inch LCD for like $800 then the computer in the living room will become as common as a VCR I imagine (it will probably be smaller too).
There's a good article, a while back, about quieting down your hotrod. But I'd tend toward just cutting that umbilical cord and having seperate DVD's for the computer and for the Home Entertainment Megaplex.
Biggest driver of trend around my shack is "isn't more bother to deal with."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I think a lot of people are bringing their computer to the home theater in the family or media room and converging it that way.
You're right about that, but I think that this merely marks a transitional period between the "multimedia pc" era (started about 7 years ago) and the "wired home" era (3 years down the road?). Eventually, I think what we'll see is more of a decentralized structure in the home PC area. We're already seeing it today, with wireless e-mail terminals and MP3 audio components for home stereos (a la the RIO Receiver and its bretheren). Look for more integrated versions of these in the future (i.e. wall-mounted touchscreen panels, linked to a file server that pipes MP3 music to any single room in the house).
I stopped reading when the author started talking wbout integrating the telephone with a home computer. I know a number of people who tried this years ago, but all are now using standalone answering machines or telco answering services. It seems to me that the reliability of PCs has actually gone down since then. I can't imagine changing something that just works, to something that often doesn't, for some nebulous benefit of integration.
--
E_NOSIG
Yep, I did that- my computer is the backbone of my 'entertainment center'. Goes something like this:
PS2/VCR => SVideo input to computer
Radio/Tape player => Audio input line
Computer => dual head output
This way I can do a whole lot all at once, even driving it all through my antiqudated PII. I'm still waiting for an app that will 'kill' that processor....
Do you like Japanese imports?
I can watch TV while I work; pipe cable TV to my non-cable TV, or watch movies from the computer displayed on the TV.
Fight Spammers!
One of the most compelling reasons to do so is cost. I have been able to purchase a 2x DVD and decoder card combo for my computer for under $40, and a Soundblaster AWE 64 Gold (which has RCA outs instead of mini DIN) for under $20. By running good cabling from the computer out to my living room, I can hook up the DVD to both my stereo and TV, as well as all computer sounds and MP3's, for much less than a standalone solution would cost. In addition, the ability to run cable back and buy mini stereo speakers instead of computer speakers gives me far better computer sound at a much cheaper price.
Instead of TV and radio being listened to over the computer, I find more and more people using the computer to inexpensively and effectively listen to TV / radio / movies.
The trend in home computing for the past ten years has been and will continue to be away from the WIMP interface and towards the FILTH interface.
The desktop metaphor of Windows, Icons, Menus and Programs was nice for quite some time, and does have some advantages over the console (sometimes,) but it still left too much of the work to the user.
Forms, Images, Links, Text and Hypermedia interfaces let you treat the system you're handling like a web page. These are already all around us, in web pages, some authoring tools, etc. Rather than worrying about menus full of cryptic commands and window after window that you have to cycle through, imagine navigating the OS or filesystem as if it were a web site, perhaps with a WYSIWYG text editor so people can once again "turn it on and write."
The majority of users have a hard time cycling windows, understanding the difference between closing an application and quitting it, etc. They also tend to only want web, email and word processing. Games and specialty applications can come later, but you won't see them running in a window floating around above the FILTH much.
"Look at me, I invented the stove!" -- Ben Franklin
Maybe not recently, but i'm willing to bet that
the huge increase in graphics complexity of
Unreal 2 and the hardware demands it will make,
will push many people to upgrade.
Obviously we don't interact with our PCs the same way we interact with television or video game consoles. So I can't really see using one monitor, for example, to surf the net and work and also to watch TV and movies.
But as home networking becomes increasingly common, people may have one "box" that can handle all their computing and audiovisual/entertainment needs. There will be a "workstation" (monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.) and an "entertainment center" (large widescreen TV, audio console, game console), maybe in separate rooms. In fact there may be multiple control/input/output systems, all over the house.
This could be a good thing...we've been hearing about the benefits of the smart house for years. But let's keep an eye on who is going to control and sell us this technology. Apple is clearly interested in the "digital lifestyle" niche, but there's another company that seems far more likely to use its monopoly power and vast cash reserves to dominate in this area. Yes, I mean the owner of WebTV, XBox, and Windoze...Micro$oft.
All I can say about this article is their Serif fonts are crazy!!!
I couldn't look at it more than 2 seconds without going cross eyed.
Bye!
Here is what I have so far : http://tv.cheema.com/vcr/ . Its in early stages of development and you may find some problems here and there. I plan to release the source under GPL once I get my employer's approval. Warning : The system above is on a slow uplink so some pages may load slowly. At some point I will start using mod_gzip.
I think that the way this will play out in the next few years is that people will get a form of client-server network in their homes. You don't want to tie up the PC in a single room or working on a single task (such as playing a DVD), so you put inexpensive computers in all your home appliances, devices, etc. Then you have one or more PC's for gaming, centralized management, etc. I guess a more important reason for this is that you don't want the refrigerator to stop working when the PC blue screens. I think it's a good time to buy stock in embedded systems companies.
It's more likely that you'll have your dedicated systems (TV, DVD player, receiver, game machine, etc...) and they'll all be able to talk to each other over wireless and/or over your home "power grid". Replace all those light switches with touch-pad interfaces to your computer, and you'll be able to not only turn on and off the lights in the room, but also turn on the radio/mp3s, or send an IM to your kid's bedrooms. Not exactly what I'd call convergence, more of extreme interopbility.
-Neuroslime
...about computer technology. When I was re-doing a basement as a home theater, just about every installer/dealer that I spoke to was either completely ignorant of the state of computer technology and/or dismissed it outright. The stuff you buy in AV stores is pretty much identical to the stuff you bought 15 years ago. Control: IR! Where's the serial port or LAN hookup? Modularity? Zip or proprietary. C'mon.
You would think that with the interest of using a PC as a home theatre component that there would be a lot more choice in the market for a decent looking PC case!
I mean seriously, there is maybe 2 PC cases on the market that will take standard PC compnents and looks like it actually belongs in your A/V cabinet. And these cases tend to be in the $250+ range, which is nuts for just a case.
A PC w/ an HDTV tuner card, optical sound output, a DVD drive, a software line doubler/tripler/quadrupler, and a fast network connection (and gobs of sound-deadening material of course!)is a great thing to have in your home theatre, but it sure sticks out like a sore thumb!
"Tomorrow's forecast: a few sprinkles of genius with a chance of doom!" - Stewie Griffin
In the short term, I feel that Windows XP will spur a short upgrading frenzy. New versions of Windows will continue this trend. The computer will continue to absorb home theater devices into itself as monitors get larger and speakers get better, and VHS tapes go the way of cassettes. Broadband Internet access will spur telecommuting and real-time videoconferencing, each carrying its own requirements. Overall, I don't see any major revolutions in the future, but instead a series of logical steps leading to a future that is not so much different from the world we live in today.
Time will tell if XP spurs anything but Linux market share.
A possible revolution could occur if a standard (Bluetooth?) could somehow reduce the controller population now threatening to bury coffee tables across the planet...
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
This is somewhat related. I am looking to buy a HDTV and am wondering if it can be used with my computer in some way? Will it interface with a computer display adapter? I followed the link on this article and someone posted a comment there about using a wireless keyboard/mouse, etc. with a HDTV. This is indeed a nice thought, but will it work? If so, what kind of performance do you get?
I believe that products like the Slimp3 player mentioned yesterday on slashdot are a nice preview of the kinds of technologies that we can expect to have, but will they thrive if the computer is brought into the living room? Is it a cosmetic issue that is keeping a PC from being put in the stereo/video cabinet? If so, what's keeping it from being visually pleasing? A bunch of questions, I guess, but I want to know!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Not only in houses, but in dorm rooms and apartments. Why buy a huge tv, when you can use a 21" monitor hooked up with a dvd player and good speakers? The return on investing in computer parts these days sure beats investing in a huge home theater system.
I personally use my monitor/dvd player and speakers to watch movies in my small little room. You just gotta get a remote.....sux having to get up to rewind the show when you gf goes "What happened there?"
It seems that we as a society are rapidly moving towards one tool to do everything. In my mind, this adds unnecessary complexity and is more prone to problems. Using your computer as your home theatre, letter writing, web working, etc, etc machine puts a lot of eggs into one basket, and then the computer dies a horrible crash.
:)
A new user might be trying to recover the computer for a week, and that's a week without being able to do any of those things they normally did on the computer, this could be as simple as watching DVDs or listening to music.
I believe in one tool for one task (within reason of course). Link things together, but try to keep them seperate. Have your home theatre system seperate from the computer, but having a link so the MP3 player could scan your computers hard drive for MP3's would be cool, but if your computer dies, the player could still play off of your mp3 cds. And so on.
Just my point of view on it, I don't know if anyone agrees with me or what
--- I used to moderate, then I read the -1 articles and decided having to filter through them was not worth it.
I don't really "get" that article, which seems to say "wow, XP is really gonna aid the entertainment-computing Revolution" but "not in a drastic way." The author provides us with such mind-shattering statements as, "...I feel that Windows XP will spur a short upgrading frenzy." The most anticlimatic statement I can think of: "Overall, I don't see any major revolutions in the future, but instead a series of logical steps leading to a future that is not so much different from the world we live in today." Um. Yes. Well, yes. Thank you, Nostradamus. Of course people will continue to add to their computers to improve the quality and quantity of tasks the computer can perform. But they may also differentiate--someone invents a gaming/TV system that works over the Internet and has a huge screen, well yes, maybe I'll put one in my living room...but that doesn't necessarily imply that I'm not going to keep using the computer in my bedroom with a word processing program and a connection to my favorite MUD. It also seems like smaller, handheld or separately functioning computing devices could easily take some of those coveted slots...not replacing, but working in addition to the home computing system.
I thought it was interesting that the author said that more people where adding DVD players and surround sound speakers to their home computer in hopes of makeing it their new home theater. I think a lot of people are bringing their computer to the home theater in the family or media room and converging it that way.
One of the best sources for info on how to build and tune a Home Theater PC (HTPC) is the AVSForum
They have an excellent FAQ, a dedicated HTPC forum, and lots of pros.
Hey did anyone chack out the review of the Pioneer 50 inch PDP it's on the left of the article. Man that thing is sweet
I'm enjoying 100 Mbps connection to the Internet, so I can download movies and stuff that way (only legal trailers, of course!) and have a 15 m SVHS-cable to my TV and SVHS video.
I use a Hollywood plus to play my DVDs and a ATI All In Wonder 128 PRO to play DivX [trailers...] on the TV. The ATI-card is connected to the Cable-TV-outlet, so I can watch TV on my 21" monitor.
I also added an extra PCI graphics card and connected a 19" monitor to it, hereby using dual desktops on Windows 2000.
I find myself most of the time running DivX/MPEG2-movies/trailers on the 19" monitor while I work/surf on the 21" monitor. I simply don't want to sit passively and just 'watch TV/movie'. I get bored in a few minutes!
Where am I getting at with this?
-Well, for one, running a DVD-player etc from a computer is nothing for non-techies. There is always something that causes problems, such as buggy drivers or lockups (which rarely happens with W2k, actually).
I have 1 Gbps Internet access@home
that the author of this article is one dumb fuck.
All our entertainment devices are becoming computers. DVD players, CD players, Tivo, and high-end TVs come to mind. Look for a microprocessor or two inside and you will find them. There are too many examples and new ones adding every year.
The computer already snuck into the living room and we did not notice.
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Give me LIBERTY, or give me a check.
Didn't our good friends (ahem) at Digital Convergence bet the farm on just this kind of counterintuition?
Ok, the article was looking pretty pathetic, but then I got to the above paragraph. HA! is all I have to say. This guy has been living in a box, and has obviously NOT tried to accomplish such a feat! I have. Here's my observations:
1. DVD's only work on the computer. The reason for this is because even if you have a dual ouput video card, you MUST have digital rights management equipment on your TV or other input source to view it on the TV, otherwise, legally made DVD software for the computer won't output the DVD image to your TV. Pretty ultra-retarded caveat if you ask me. Obviously, not only are they trying to limit my ability to 'copy' the DVD, I'm apparently not even allowed to 'copy' the image to a source other than my computer's monitor, if I don't have the latest and greatest digital rights management equipment!! How ridiculous. /= better than CD!!! Duh! The reason I go and buy CD's at the store, is because while easy to use, mp3's are not the original source. It's a lossy format, but much better than cassette tapes for longevity's sake.
2. Napster is dead. DEAD! The RIAA effectively killed it, and now they're trying to kill it's siblings like Kazaa and Gnutella. Listening to my own self-built 'mp3 radio' is increasingly more difficult if you're 'obeying all the rules.'
3. mp3
In conclusion, I think the person who wrote this article is a drone, and has very little real world experience with the obstacles to creating the in home entertainment utopia described in this article. Somebody needs to do some clue-stick bludgeoning before this guy gets around to describing how "Using a cell phone in the car has never been easier!"
I've babbled on about this before but Microsoft is the only company out there who knows what is happening with convergence. With Xbox, you have DVD and 3D graphics/gaming with future capabilities for PVR and much more. As the underlying technology progresses and becomes smaller/integrated/cheaper, look for Microsoft to push Xbox into all-in-one set-top boxes. Included with your [insert TV content provider here] subscription could be an Xbox based device that will provide gaming, DVD, PVR, internet gateway, etc etc...
Sigh...
Does anyone know where the Indrema code went? Was there any code? Why wasn't it GPL'ed or something? The Xbox represents the beginning of Microsoft's world domination and we are left to sit by and watch. Hell, I'm actually all for it but it would be nice to have an alternate to choose from.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Pssst,
You could have ported your code over to *BSD and not had to worry.
Sorry but the trends of home automation point in a very different direction. Granted HA is not for the average person. But it is where the techie is heading. Centralized audio and video systems, and automation systems along with the computing network is where it is going. covering what you can buy at best-buy is not giving anyone any information on the direction. It's just an opinion piece from someone that wanted to write an article with a minimum of effort in research.
Just do some basic research in home automation on google. you will find more information that you want in what the current trends and direction it is heading.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Although we had planned for no one outside of this company to ever use, let alone see the source code, we were now put in a difficult position.
Yes, you realized the solution you chose was incompatible with the plan you'd made. Was that the fault of Linux, or the fault of your bad planning?
We could either give away our hard work, or come up with another solution. Although it was tought to do, there really was no option: We had to rewrite the code, from scratch, for Windows 2000.
There WAS an option: "give away" your hard work. Lots of people gave you the hard work they put into developing Linux. The deal you made by using it was that you'd do the same. Your own mindset -- that all your work had to remain secret for economic reasons -- was the problem here. In fact, the GPL license was rendering tremendous benefits to you, by letting you use the collective work of others for free. The "price" of the free software you used was that you would share your own work, and you chose not to pay it. That was your loss.
</lecture>
Yes, I know the original post was a troll...
Customizing your own home entertainment center PC can save you a bundle of money as well versus buying standalone units. You just have to research your parts.
:)
I recently built an AMD Athlon based system with an ATI All-in-Wonder Card, with a DVD player (Region free firmware of course), CD Burner, and surround sound stero system. All for about $600 (excluding the TV, speaker system, and amp, I already had), which when you consider all the components it includes you really are saving a bundle and getting a lot of extra value.
For starters, it replaces the need for a CD player with the CD-Burner and DVD Player. Secondly, the MP3 Library that can be held on the 60 GB hard obfuscates the need to switch CD's.
Then the DVD drive gets rid of the stand alone DVD player. Plus, when it's firmware fixerd, to get rid of the annoying region playing problem, you can play DVD's from any where in the world. Plus, the NTSC PAL TV problem is solved by virtue of the fact that the Video Card can do the signal processing.
The ATI All-in-Wonder card also gives the DVR capability similar to Tivo. What's more, the DVR is better because the shows can later be archived as DivX with some automated scripting using FLashMPEG and VirtualDUB, and burnt off to CD, for later viewing. Not to mention, comercial editing if you are any good at use VirtualDub.
On top of that, linking old school analog system such as Audio Cassette Decks, Turntables, 8 Tracks, or VCR, is relatively easy, making a rather universal media player.
The only thing you need really is a decent amplifier and speakers, and either a Monitor or Television. Granted if you have a big PC monitor (19" or bigger), definitely go for the monitor because then your DVD's play as progressive scan, instead of interlaced through a regular Television.
And with a wireless keyboard with built in mouse, you can sit on the couch and be the spud you've always known that you could be.
Also the upgradability factor is also good, considering that when projectors get and HDTV TV Tuner cards get cheaper, you can have a real projection home entertainment center for less than half as much as it would cost to create with stand alone components.
Just my two cents.
"I think a lot of people are bringing their computer to the home theater in the family or media room and converging it that way."
Most people use their computer for business and/or games. For business, concentration is especially important. A family room is an unlikely place in a home to concentrate effectively.
While the computer would be in use in the family room, other family members could not use their main entertainment center. In addition, why tie up a machine capable of so many other things by watching a movie when TVs are designed for that specific purpose?
My best friend Josh has a home theatre setup driven by his computer. It easily surpasses any home theatre I've seen to date.
The video is being handled by a projector mounted on the back wall that takes the computer monitor's feed and projects that nine feet tall. This means we get extremely high resolution, stable video images using techie terms I can only begin to understand. The image is sharper and more defined than any TV based image I've seen including HDTV, and certainly larger; IMAX movies are a real treat.
The audio is routed optically to a DTS sound system with speakers all over the room. Theatre quality audio, not miniplugs converted to RCA jacks.
Lately I haven't been going to the movies very often, not when I get a better moviegoing experience a few months later when the DVD comes out and it's screened at Bijoux de Josh.
So it's not really about whether computers CAN be the central figure in a home theatre setup. They can. The question is, how far are you willing to go to supply quality components that work with that computer?
I think the article is half on-target. Integration of media in the home seems a desirable goal for any company in the media industry. It opens the door not only to horizontal expansion, but also to cooperation with others that can enable a variety of features simply unavailable when the computer and the tv are in a different room.
.NET, Microsoft could become a ubiquitous presence not only on your desktop, but also in your living room.
But I don't think the tv is coming into the computer room; I think the computer is going to the tv room. Personally, it would not surprise me if Microsoft's 10 year plan were to become a media giant as well as a software company--a sort of uber-AOL-Time Warner. The writing, I think, is on the wall, and for once, I have to credit Microsoft for their vision (regardless of how much I may despise their business practices). Xbox is way too much to be a gaming console; it embraces a variety of media and connections that suggest that it may soon evolve into something that could lay claim to be the only box between the wall and your tv (Zapstation anyone?). Coupled with XP and
-db
Hey idiot use BSD you don't have to publish our code and the source is available. And where the fuck were you in the cave the past few years of course it's GPL'ed and we like it that way
I think only a few people will want their main computer to be running the home theatre. After all, the computer's main tasks are Internet, games and word processing.
However, more and more households get more than one computer. This way, the second computer (which is 'only' 450 MHz) can be running the stereo, the fridge, etc; while the gigahertz beast can use all its powers on the latest games.
Another option is buying new computers to run household equipment. What would you need? A slow processor wil do just fine, but a fast graphics card is nice for DVDs, and a good sound card is also essential. The hard drive can be very small, unless you plan to store lots of MP3s. The peripherals (monitor, keyboard, ...) are unimportant, as the system can be remotely operated. (Perhaps even a stereo-like control panel will be developed.) These stripped-down computers will have to be silent and good-looking to fit into the living-room. (Well, anything could fit into my living-room, but that's another story.)
So, the pioneers start using old computers for running home theatres etc. To meet the demand, the industry then develops cheap PCs tuned for this very purpose. How's that for a prediction?
All of the integration is nice except where non-techies are in the home. How many people have small children or spouses that aren't tech savy? I would hate to have my telephone, home theater, or anything else connected only to have it crashed by someone trying to figure out how to dial the phone.
My computer has the Radeon VE card in it. So, all I do to watch a DVD upstairs is throw a couple of switches that I got from RadioShack and voila, my stereo system upstairs is now enable with sound from my computer in the Auxiliary, and all the remote I need is my cordless keyboard and mouse, which transmit via radio right through the floorboards. Sounds great with my Audigy, looks good, but not that good. It's a really old TV.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Assuming for a moment your article wasn't meant entirely as a troll to enflame sentiments (which I doubt) of the community here, did you folks ever think of reading the license agreement BEFORE DOING DEVELOPMENT? If not, you are quite utterly clueless. WHENEVER you decide to use someone else's work, in WHATEVER form, one would only think that you'd take the time to read the license they have attached to it. If the license is in any way confusing (and GPL is pretty readable), you'd think you'd talk to your lawyer BEFORE instigating a development effort.
Rather than saying "Linux 0, MS 1", why not say "Intelligence 0, Stupidity 1"?
And BTW, I'd like to see you modify WINDOWS kernel code... PERIOD. At all. Ever. And if you had to, I'd like to see you figure enough of it out to make the modifications viable - even M$ has trouble there.
Have a nice day, Mr. Troll.
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."
Yes, it's a good idea and I am doing it. Five years ago I bought my stereo. Always had it connected on the computer to replace the lousy speakers. Then came TV cards, and I got one. With the capability of pluging your favorite cable company, it is a must. Screen capture and movies saving, also a plus. I can store movies that I sa on television and see them again over and over. Musicals, shows, cerimonies, everything I like it's saved somewhere over a dozen hard drives.
Then came the computer's DVD, and I got one. It's possible to watch DVD, play DVD games, watch TV, record TV, play music, etc..., all in one computer.
I believe it's nice to integrate those things.
But the relationship between my computer and other media devices are only, sort of, physical. This integration will really take off the day someone makes software for this purpose. You won't need a full featured television, just a computer connected to a tv that can accept commands from the computer.
With computers as the central piece of this organism, we will be able to maintain a highly purpose and generic device (the computer) while cheaper parts could be connected and integrated.
Too bad traditional eletronics companies are investing time and research pratically only enhancing their own devices. While an easier and less expensive setup would be to make the computer the device that glues everything together.
I guess for now, we will have to depend on small 'hacks', turnarounds, to integrate them.
Buy a Nintendo DS Lite
I think people are really scared of integration. In general, boundaries, good or bad, provide a limit to each area of life. Take something as simple as TV... it was really, and for the most part is really, easy to use and understand (on a superficial level). Turn it on, change the channel, change the volume... pretty simple. A lot of TVs now have CC on mute, but few people turn the option on. I think if too many things are crammed into one device people shy away from it. People don't want to have to upgrade their kernels in their televisions (well wait... not thems normal peoples :-P ) because of a possible filesystem error, or worry if their overclocked tv can switch channels faster than yours, they want to grab a bag of doritos and forget about everything else.
Take the public's concept of a PC computer 10 years ago. Generally they were regarded as difficult to use and understand, but they could do everything and anything you could program them to do. Now we use them for e-mail, music, movies (maybe) and word processing, and we pay a whole lot to have really fancy ones that we don't know how to really use because we're not told what we can use them for.
When someone wants to watch a movie, who cares if it's connected to the web to deliver relative content... in the end I think companies are pushing wired integration of content delivery systems so they have a unified platform for marketing and marketing information.
But it's almost there. Wireless input is cheap. Home networking is cheap and easy. Add an email/web appliance and broadband in case the screen is tied up with a DVD. Add in that big screen, and you have a workstation you can use while slumped on your sofa (!) that doubles as a home theater. Add xtraceroute to complete the war room-like ambience.
reasons:
play multiple region discs
disable Macrovision - needed because I cannot directly connect to our TV and must go through VCR
play downloaded MPEG movie files, trailers, and animation
play mpeg files created from home video captures and friend's 3D work in Maya/SoftImage.
big screen gaming
listen to MP3 music files from our home file server
and future plan to use either large computer monitor or projector with 72 Hertz scan rate for sharper, clearer video picture (no more 60 Hertz flicker) - also 72 is a multiple of 24. Movies are filmed at 24 fps - again a clearer picture.
I'm also interested to hear from others using a computer as the main part of a home entertainment centre
Wintel has failed to push any convergence.
M$oft marketed a PC phone a few years ago, what happened?
PC's ought to be the digital hub for DVD, HDTV, personal video recorder, and digital music. But the content companies are terrified of unencrypted signals traveling over Firewire.
PC's could serve as a digital hub for all the devices in a home that you want to interconnect. I want to hook my doorbell up to the PC so I have a log of who's ringing and know whether UPS and FedEx actually attempted delivery by 10:30am. No cable, and no standard. M$oft has had a wired house on their campus for two years now. What happened? (Is X10 signalling over power lines the answer?)
I hope the situation changes. People won't buy $2000 PC's unless they DO MORE than a $600 word processing/Internet PC.
=S
I bought a DVD drive 2 years ago thinking I can use it to not only play DVD movies but also for all those DVD games that will be coming out soon.
2 years later, I haven't placed a DVD in it for over a year. In fact, the only DVD game I own is a Wing Commander game that came with the DVD drive.
Granted, I use it for my CDs, but I can't believe that the average Joe has a need to even have a DVD drive let along use it to play movies on his TV.
Oh no! The stereo crashed!
Blue Screen of Death three times during Titanic -- a sure way to make your girlfriend leave you.
Perhaps there are better alternatives than Windows for a system that's just supposed to be working 24/7? ;-)
Acutally, my pc(s) have turned into a cost effective solution of getting expensive media equipment. For instance, I've got an 900mhz athlon proc on a 10x dvd player that serves as my linux box. We set up our monitor in our living room and I have the boxen hidden in a small entertainment center. MP3's are loaded into the XMMS and then played on my stereo system. That the whole setup cost me less than 300 USD (without the monitor. the monitor I already owned. ) Funny thing is, I tried this first on my windows box. didn't work. DVD kept stalling and couldn't produce frames fast enough. After a recompile on my Linux box, it was great.
What i'd really like is some info on a good streaming media format to utilize this "home theater anywhre in my home (i'm already networked)
http://cincyboys.blogspot.com/ Everything Cincinnati. Including the word 'Finnih'
When I heard that they were making DVDROMs, the first thought that crossed my mind was, "Wow, there are going to be some really bitchin' games for the PC now that we have all that space available on a DVD." I would never buy a DVDROM to watch movies on my computer.
Wooden armaments to battle your imaginary foes!
The new EQ expansion, Shadows of Luclin has huge system requirements and if you read some of the EQ boards, TONS of people went out and a bought a bunch of gear just so they could meet the requirements. 512MB recommended and a 32MB video card...
uh... yeah, i should hope so.
Wow that is one tech-savvy legal department. They have proof that BSD "stole" the code from DOS (how did that happen - I thought BSD was around a number of years before DOS. Could be mistaken though)?
I am sure MS would like to hear from them.
I understand your problem though. That is a reason we have shied away from Linux as well. On the one hand its great to be able to modify the code to do exactly what you want, but having to give that code to your competitors is just unfair.
The Sound Blaster Live! Platinum 5.1 has a non-kludgy remote with RCA or digital jacks for sounds. I've found this to be a decent solution since I can control MP3 and DVD playback with the remote. Contrary to other posts, I've had very good 800x600 picture quality from my GeForce TV-out. However, I do end up watching DVD's on my monitor since the picture quality is so much better than the TV.
I can imagine a market for high-end consumers if they would use a projection device and good stereo sound.
I'm planning to build a home theater in a few years and would consider that kind of packaged setup. Key of course is that it not seem like a computer with theater features. It should just be a real cool home theater package that happens to have an expandable computer at the core.
--- -- - -
Give me LIBERTY, or give me a check.
absolutely. It has been rather obvious for a long time that smart homes are an inevitability. maybe not for everybody, but at least for the average suburbite with a disposable income. The stars all have fully wired houses, the public isn't far behind.
It only makes sense that we would start to see a shift towards the computer in the living room. Let's face it, even with chat rooms, solitaire and free pr0n, the average person still spends more time at home in front of the TV than the computer. As people start to realize the potential of the computer to perform tasks other than "computer tasks" like word processing and web surfing(this goes well with yesterday's article about Turing), they will tend to bring it into the most central location of the house.
I think that moving the computer into the living room and using it to control your tv and stereo is just a logical step to be followed by a few others:
1. dumb terminals in all the bedrooms for e-mail and web access.
2. sleek looking wall mount servers to look snazzy and serve the home entertainment as well as internet needs
3. new homes being built with an upgradable server already installed behind a wall and fibre-optics running throughout the house.
4. people replacing typical hardware solutions like doorbells and thermostats with software that runs on the integrated server they already use for movies, music and e-mail.
suddenly, everyone is living in a smart house and they didn't even notice it happening.
lysergically yours
if it's a piece of software running on top of linux and you're not using any GPL'd code you don't have to give up your code. just if you mess with the kernel
>more people where adding DVD players
more people WERE adding DVD players
>makeing it their new home theater.
MAKING it their new home theater.
Even a quick pass through a spellchecker would've caught that last one. Check your writing before publishing it.
YHBT. Twice. God, I can't believe so many suckers are falling for egg troll, even though almost every post contains hints that he's trolling, and his userid contains "troll".
Also, the advent of file-sharing services such as Napster heralded the beginning of the end for the stand-alone CD player. I now play all of my music on my computer, as it has better sound fidelity than any CD player I own.
Dude, if your CD player doesn't sound better than the MP3's you got from Napster, take it back to Wal-Mart!
Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
I recently put one together to co-exist with my home theater setup in the living room. A low end machine... 800 MHz Duron, 32MB Radeon, Hauppauge WinTV card (for video capture), 512MB ram, 80G HDD... the whole thing set me back about $700. I painted the case and all front panels black... it fits in quite nicely with the rest of my stereo.
With that system I can now capture video, compress it to mpeg1 (or mpeg2) for burning onto VCD and/or SVCD. I'm copying many of my most played CDs over to it, so I'll have an audio jukebox. I can play non region 1 DVDs. I can read /. on my TV. I can listen to internet radio stations. Pretty much anything I could do before on my office PC, I can do here... but now it's intergrated with my Home Theater.
We had a holiday party last week, so I ripped all of our holiday CDs, downloaded some other songs, recorded some of the "seasonal" music channel on the satellite, created a playlist, and threw it into random mode... and all day the thing happily churned out Christmas music from a fairly large library.
Money well spent so far...
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Some people like playing with trolls. They are furry, and except for their stinking breath, make wonderful house pets.
The basis of the article is Windows XP and how great it is and how useful it'll be for the user. He completely ignores any of the new research being done in the psychology, or HCI (Human-Computer Interaction)field.
We're at the dawn of how our lives will be shaped by computer. Have you ever wonderered why you need to use the crappy keyboard/mouse interface to do stuff on the computer? How about why do you need to phone the video store to check if they have the movie you want in stock? I can think a ton of things that have the data in digitial format but don't have the connection from the datasource to the user. That's going to be the next big change.
Of course, computers will get new OS's, new games and new toys. Then imagine the day when everything is integrated. We are no where near that day and as that starts to happen we'll notice major improvements. Another thing to note, we think a computer is a commodity. Unfortunately, it's not in a lot of other places. It'll be as computer start to become really cheap. That should make things very interesting.
Finally, when we are able to access information smartly we'll see improvements too.
You notice how the article you replied to was talking about "home computers" in the sense of a PC? There is a world of difference between a PC and a computer chip embedded in a DVD player.
Obviously many devices we use in our daily lives (including many telephones) use microprocessors... even my technlogocally illterate grandparents know that. If you didn't notice any computers in your living you weren't looking very hard!
501 Not Implemented
well let me direct you to this link thank you. if that doesn't help try this one
What's a troll?
...Compaq isn't involved in your home system you should be ok. I have wasted many hours working on Compaq systems because of drivers that do not work correctly, and because of a poor driver and component listing on their website.
I cannot stress enough that if you are planning to make a high-end entertainment system, make sure that you have a PC that can handle the task. And if for some reason you are using a Compaq, be sure to check the support site for updates (since they can never get anything right the first time, or the second...), and always buy upgrade components that can be returned.
It started with a problem: I bought a new computer, what do I do with my old one? So I bought a cheapy Radeon LE card with TV out, and plugged it in to my TV.
Then I put a DVD ROM in it. Then I put an 80-gig drive in it. Then I put a Hauppage WinTV card in it. What did it turn into? A Media Machine. I use SnapStream to capture TV shows... lots and lots of TV shows. For example, I'd like to watch Farscape from beginning to end. Now I can realistically do that, since Sci-Fi channel is airing it.
I can watch DVDs, and when I get a better sound system for it, I'll even play MP3's on it.
Now there are sites popping up with Video on Demand streamed through the internet. Check out http://www.intertainer.tv/. I got a subscription to this service, and it isn't half bad! Now I can watch movies for roughly the price to rent them at the store, the diffrence is I don't have to drive to the store twice to view one movie. Now I can just say "I want to watch this movie now" *click*.
I went to Siggraph this year, spent 4 days in L.A.. The hotel I went to didn't have anything interesting on TV. Fortunately I had a bunch of shows I wanted to watch ready to go on my laptop.
It's nice to be able to enjoy the $35 I spend a month on Cable TV, without having to schedule my life around it.
"Derp de derp."
i ment this one
Here are some examples of proper usage of these words.
1. I told you where to put the fish!
2. We were going to eat a pie, but decided not to.
3. Where are my keys?
4. The people were drinking.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
w00p
I want a killer hi-fi, or a great home theatre, or a super TV set. I need a home computer.
What is really happening here is that the computer industry has "stolen" the disposeable income of most consumers. I could spend a few grand on some "killer" home entertainment device, and use it for 10 years if I wanted.
Not so with computers; whether it's a 3 or 4 year hardware upgrade, software purchases, or incremental upgrades, I am spending the "same" money in a constant cycle.
So, when a few bucks come my way, the PC is always begging for something. I'll just buy that "other" entertainment device some other time (which never comes, cuz the next time computer is screaming again).
Naturally people are going to try to incorporate these "lost" entertainment items into the PC budget.
Get an iMac, no fan. And yes there is a VGA port. Aside from playing DVD's, it works real well as a computer. ;-)
the noice from the pc is the biggest reason I decided to not use a computer in my home theatre. Even the quietest PC is not enough.... Say you PC puts out 30dB of noise. Then that mean the dynamic range of the system is 30dB less.
However, I am probably not like most people, I am very very picky. I would consider myself an audiophile; that is why I don't listen to MP3s (I think they sound horrible, even at high and variable bit rates)!
that the complexity of silicon chips would double.
this guy can't even get moore's law right. he forgot the 18 month part. if he doesn't know something that fundamental, he really has no place trying to predict computer trends.
also, predicting things like video conferencing. yay. people have been predicting things like that for at least five years.
Would Hitler have been considered a troll?
Pretty sure he believed everything he did was "against the grain" and spoke what he thought was "the truth".
That is exactly the point. There is no reason every computer should have a keyboard and expansion slots. Other examples are XBox, GameCube, Playstation, etc.
I consider these all personal computing devices that have been specialized.
If we define a personal computer as something that looks and misbehaves like what we have today, there will be no such thing as a personal computer a few decades from now.
--- -- - -
Give me LIBERTY, or give me a check.
IE doesn't sit in the systray.
I wouldnt want my PC in the family room. I use my PC when I want to take a break from family life. Also I dont want my kid watching me play violent video games in which I blast competitors into chuks of bloody meat.
I like traffic lights
A friend of mine had a computer hooked up to receiver (and TV, for onscreen xmms display) for mp3 playback. He gave it one of the modes on his all-in-one remote, installed the IR control module for xmms, and just let it run constantly. He could switch the TV and/or the audio over to the computer at any time, and control all the MP3 playing functions from one of the modes on the remote.
What's the problem with that? It's not like the remote controlled his DVD player perfectly, then screamed "I'm a kludge!" whenever he used it on MP3s.
(he used 320kbit mp3 files and a sound card with digital output, BTW; the sound really wasn't distinguishable from a CD jukebox)
I believe we are still facing some major problems before that is going to happen. First of all, widescreen, I don't know any videocard who will properly convert the output of the DVD player to a widescreen image ( I know that's not much of an issue in the US but anyway :). Secondly is the sound card. If you buy a high-end soundcard with surround and everything, you usually have to take the speakers with it, since you can't connect standard speakers to your sound card (due to wiring issues). The speakers that come with the sound card are no doubt good quality, but they will never match the quality of a separate amplifier and quality home-cinema speakers.
Then, most of us don't have the PC within very close range of the TV. This may not be an issue for the speakers, but it certainly is for the video wiring.
And last but not least, TV and movies in more general are enjoyable with more people. PC as far as I am concerned is a solo activity. While you are watching movies you are blocking access to your computer. So nobody in the house will be able to watch DVD movies when you're hacking away behind the keyboard. That being said you can always dedicate a computer to DVD playing but haven't we passed our goal then? You will actually pay more to have decent home cinema than when you buy off-the-shelf equipment.
My two euro-cents (at least within a day or 20 :)
The GPL mandates that any software that incorporates source code already licensed under the GPL will itself become subject to the GPL.
that's a quote from the page you gave. so if YOU DON'T USE GPL CODE just your own code run it on linux you'll be fine.
Basically, there is no way in hell any pc will come close to the performance of a Denon amp, a purpose built DVD player, and a Runco TV.
It should also be noted that many current DVD players support SACD, DVD-audio, and other sound formats, I doubt the same can be said about pc's.
"Smokey, this isn't Nam, there are rules." -Walter
well microsoft released 10's of millions of windows. so is bill gates hitler?
Convergence of info appliances into the computer, remarkable concept, about 15 years ago. That new software and operating systems will have more features, wow, big surprize. I'm can't believe I actually sat through that whole article. I mean, it's not a bad read for someone new to computers, but I expect something a little more in depth or novel on /.
Nah.
Using that definition, AOL might be though.
What I ended up with was a surprisingly good looking black case that goes extremely well with the rest of my equipment.
Anyone capable of putting together a computer from scratch really should be able to paint one as well. It's amazingly easy.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Yes, you're right. It was a bad choice of fonts. But you're wrong in your terminology. The use a font without serifs (aka sans serif).
Times Roman, Garamond, Georgia are examples of serif fonts.
Helvetica and Arial are examples of sans serif fonts.
I am *such* a geek.
___
Cognitive Overflow
more than yo
I guess Microsoft is slowing down the feature bloat and ramping up GUI bloat development. This is just what I need - all of these "pretty colors, higher quality images and icons" taking up screen real estate and leaving less room for anything useful. Apple's Aqua style is bad enough, and I doubt Microsoft will do a better job. Whatever happened to the days of a simple, common interface? Why does every application/OS/web site/etc. have to have its own unique interface style that is designed for looks and not functionality? I guess we can look forward to the computer equivalent of breast implants, painted-on eyebrows, and botox...
I can think of a very stable OS that runs in 2MB of memory. Windows XP is a shining example of what is wrong with today's High Level Language (C, C++, C#) coders - they generate copious amounts of sloppy and inefficient code. Ask yourself: Why is it that, even though XP doesn't add any significant functionality, it requires more memory and processing power? The answer is simple - it was written by stupid programmers. Microsoft has re-invented the wheel, made it less efficient, and wants to charge you more for it.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
by that definition you're a troll too
In all seriousness--and I'm a programmer, not a luddite--I'd trade 50% computing power for something that didn't give me fits every few months or so. Every time I have to upgrade something, be it under Linux or Windows, it kills a couple of evenings and involves numerous trips to the store. "Okay, I just bought a new video card because Game X doesn't work with my old one, but then Game Y doesn't work with the new one." Or having to constantly upgrade drivers and worrying that one upgrade might cascade into a whole series of them.
No one has to do this kind of thing with their Palm, cell phone, or DVD player. I'd happily be behind the times in the coming years if I could buy the equivalent of an Atari 800 or Commodore 64 with the capabilities of, say, a bottom line Athlon. Seriously. People were mining the capabilities of the C64 for ten years, and we're talking about something with 500 times the raw capability.
For sound, people can grumble but 5.1 sound systems are pretty decent modulo the 2->6 channel coversion algorithm used in your setup. It's close enough to the human limits for sound and both computer and normal audio components are about equal quality right now.
For video, however, TV is so far behind what is both easily available on the computer, *AND* when can be perceived, that it isn't even funny.
It isn't even a true 640x480, it's 60Hz *interlaced* for pete's sake. It isn't even sold anymore on computers because it's considered a hazard for your eyes and far too little information content to be useful.
I use a 1024x768 LCD projector with my home "TV" computer system with a Radeon All-In-Wonder, a Soundblaster Audigy, and a digital/analog 5.1 sound system (I'm lazy about buying the add-on dongle for the Audigy to make it full digital). I used to have a NEC 29" 800x600 monitor that could do 72Hz refresh.
Certainly before I got the projector, it was cheaper than any "progressive-scan" TV you could buy, not even talking about the improved resolution. Even now it's still way cheaper and obviously higher quality than some relative's "home theater" systems with standard components you buy from some high-end video place. The "progressive scan DVD players" and other such crap are a joke.
For TV reception, it aleviates eye-strain.
For DVD playing, it decodes to the native resolution and it's so much better than TV it's not even worth comparison.
There's 3 reasons this has never caught on and never will: You have to integrate corporations' goals and consumers' goals before you can have an integrated product on the mass-market.
Your average consumer
1 - will never try to outpace the integration of their technology ("I don't need to pay $1500 for an HDTV when this $300 model will work just fine -- there's never anything on, anyway..."),
2 - will not integrate existing technology in a non-established manner ("why would I pay $100 for a computer phone when this $50 answering machine will do just fine?"), and
3 - will never integrate technology in a way which impairs implicit functionality of the technology ("I spent more on my GeForce3 than I did on my television and you want me to... plug it in to my television? That thing that's all curvy with too few pixels and a high-pitched whine? Yeah right... how 'bout I just buy this $100 DVD player and call it good?")
The telephone may be replaced by a dedicated Data I/O Server in especially smart homes -- note the pre-integration: No Consumer Effort Required! -- of the future. But you'll have to get a 200+ disc DVD (or whatever's big in the future) changer on that Smart Home Server before your home theatre components get reduced.
But don't expect this any time soon -- the AT&T broadband network is kinda clogged up with all of those Ex-ite@home refugees and Verizon is waiting for all of their competition to go bankrupt before they deploy their DSL network.
Someday I'll bust out the ol' Commodore 64 and hook that up to my TV set, complete with tape drive, and let the kids see things the way I did...
For us carnivores, "Sucking the marrow out of life" isn't a transcendentalist philosophy but a practical instruction.
Halflife is based off the original quake and not quake2. Cant writers confirm their sources?
I have the same setup but with a DXr3 decoder (DVD) for TV out. The DXr3 decoder card have a better output than the video-out of my V3 3000.
Salut a toi EX Punk anarchiste devenu nouveau mouton conformiste...
I have a large drive array on my server at home, with about 250 movies and many gigs of my cd collection, etc. After locating a low end PC (PII-350) and finding a TNT with video out, I decided it was time to see how streaming movies and songs would work.
The answer? Like a champ.
It sits beneath my VCR and DVD player for the time being, until I can afford a DVD (or burner) drive and a Radeon All-In-Wonder card. I figure, once those are in place, I'll probably need to upgrade the CPU for capture, but then I'll have a smooth VCR/DVD/Jukebox, without ever having to get off the couch. Oh yeah, wireless (radio) keyboard and mouse.
Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
When I first bought my DVD-ROM and installed it in my computer, I figured I'd be watching a lot of movies on my PC. Then I watched one. I don't know if it was the MPEG decoder (Creative Dxr2) or my monitor (MegaImage 17"), but the image sucked. The colours weren't nearly as vivid as those on my TV, and the darker areas of the picture were way too dark to actually make out any detail. Not to mention the obvious drawback - the 17" screen! Heck, my TV is 27", and I consider THAT puny.
After that, I began hooking the computer up to the TV whenever we wanted to watch a DVD. The picture looked much better on the TV, but now I had this ugly, beige box sitting on the floor, with cables all over the place. My wife hated it, so into the study went the computer.
One more thing: noise. A computer is noisy. Maybe you guys are all just used to it because you've been around them for so long, but the constant hum of a fan is irritating especially during a quiet part of a movie. What other home theatre/audio components make so much noise while they're operating? None.
So while a computer is capable of doing many jobs well, it's only really ideal at a select few: reading email, surfing the net, ... uh ... games, I suppose ... ?
For a serious home theatre setup, I'll be getting a dedicated DVD player/decoder, audio tuner, etc. Playing mp3s on my computer, hooked up to a $400 shelftop stereo was fine for my dorm room, but I'm in the real world now. A $15 RCA connector can only give you so much fidelity. Give me optical audio outputs anyday.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
Here's a toy for all of you mp3 freaks, Harman Kardon has a new computer-to-home audio link that connects your mp3 collection to your home reciever. They boast about allowing you to browse your mp3 collection and play it from your home stereo system. This might be on my Christmas list!
amature video porn
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
I put together a P233 with a 17" Monitor and Home Stereo Speakers driven off a small 40 Watt Car Audio Amp that was powered from the 12 Volt leads on my computer Power Supply (Some small Capacitor Mods needed for cleanliness).
This Unit served as my Computer, Internet Surfer, CD/Wav/MP3 Player, TV, Video Recorder (athough space was real tight if you wanted more than one show), and most importantly my Gaming Machine. After I got a VCR, It would play movies as well as my new Play Station. It looked better than a TV in fullscreen mode, and sounded great. It was more than enough to satisfy a geek cramped in a little pad, and impressed all my friends that came to visit and play Tekken.
There are many good and bad points to having a setup like this though. For a single guy in school its great, but any more than that would require more than one PC. (IE. Woman wants TV, I want Web.)
I now have an actual Entertainment center (Mostly for the Woman) and two Entertainment PCs. When I decided I needed more processing power, I designed my new unit with all the same features. It's a bit better of course with a 19" Monitor, DVD-Rom, better video in/out, and an 80 Watt amp, but the idea is the same.
As for the old 233, I upgraded it to a 450 and gave it some other new equipment. Now it's known as the bedroom box. Perfect for TV in bed, watching movies, Musical Alarm Clock, and checking slashdot before coffee.
As for the market on this idea, the only thing to say is slow. I work at Local PC sales and repair shop and I suggested building Home Entertainment PCs as part of our sales line. I could make them for a reasonable price, but the salesmen just could'nt move them out very well. Most people were not intrested because they already have a nice Entertainment Center. They want a PC at a good price and thats it. As to be expected, the only people that wanted our HEPCs was the soon to be college student who was going to be stuck in the dorms for a couple years, a few geeks that wanted everything and more, and a few old guys that found them perfect for hiding in their shop/study/office away from the wife. The rest of the market just was'nt ready.
If time allows, maybe I'll recap this post on TQY3, with some pictures and better descriptions of my experience with HEPC's.
Opinions Expressed by Me should be Forced on Others - PbHead
Get the dildo out of your fucking ass so you can stop being so anal about the way your shit looks like to that much a t. I can understand color, but who cares if doesn't sit on top of your stupid cheap ass Sony tuner?
I watch HiDef TV (HDTV) and standard TV (SDTV) from broadcast, satellite and cable, as well as DVDs and CDs from one (1) computer. Video output is progressive scan (line doubled) native res. or HD going to 2 front projectors and Monitor (SDTV or HDTV possible). 1 is data grade with VGA input. The other is HDTV with component inputs. Sound goes out DD/PCM/DTS through SPD/IF in all cases to my receiver that decodes and upconverts as necessary to 5.1 surround.
To achieve all this with separate components and similar quality would cost $6000+ easy. The computer was ~2400. Remotes come included with the hardware or you can use wireless KB/Mouse as I do.
If you open your mind too wide, people will throw trash in it.
- Have been trolled (royally).
- Can't spell goatse.cx.
- Can't create a hypertext link.
- Can't spell overall.
Statistics clearly indicate that you are an absolute tool. Please wander in front of a moving train as soon as possible.
I have my PC setup so that I don't need to rely on the TV (unless I have a big audience).
I have a Sony Widescreen monitor (Model GDM-FW900, 16:10 aspect ratio, 22" v.i.s). This lets me watch movies from my DVD-ROM, and my HDTV tuner card (www.accessdtv.com) as well as regular analog TV (currently my cable box). Since the Sony has two inputs BNC and HD-15, I connect my PC via the BNC and my HDTV tuner to the HD-15 connector.
1.85 DVD Movies look great on this monitor. 2.15 movies chop off quite a bit off the top and bottom, but since they are still wide, they still great on the monitor. I use WinDVD 3.0 to play my DVDs.
Now for sound, I use an Audigy Platinum. You can connect this to your own speaker system or you can use the Inspire 5700 Digital set. For an effective home theatre gaming machine, I would use the Inspire 5700 speaker set. You get a system that can decode both DD5.1 and DTS signals, and you also benefit from digital output of the Audigy. The Inspire speakers are not powerful, but they are pretty decent speakers for the price and features.
On top of that I use a GeForce 3 Ti 500 card so I can play games at great speed and quality. And I still have the benefit of watching and recording cable TV and over the air HDTV broadcasts. And I can play all the latest gamees. All in one PC.
And if I want to play my consoles, The Gamecube and Dreamcast, I already have the components that let me connect it to my monitor for some nice progressive scan gaming.
The computer he was using didn't have any built in IR ports, but he found a little IR receiver that plugs into the serial port for ten or twenty bucks.
It didn't have a long enough cord, though. The computer really should be stuck in a closet (or built with a fanless CPU) for this sort of thing; he had to turn it off to enjoy movies without purring fans as background noise.
Put simply, who wants to watch the DIVX movies on a computer screen? Sure it's fine at times, but it is so much better on my 32" TV set out in the living room. And which DVD players can play the DIVS movies? None that I know about. So I can play the DIVX (right from the HD), plus it's nice these days too since you can put an "old-warn-out" machine in the living room to watch DIVX and DVD. My personal machine is a Duron 700, Toshiba 2X DVD, and Riva TNT2 with S-Video output. Looks fantastic on the screen. The visually better quality movies look almost as good as the HDTV displays I see in stores. The machine is on 24/7 to play movies or 1000's of MP3's. Works great, I just wish I had and "old" book PC case instead of a mini-tower. But the wifey doesn't mind (or hasn't commented adversely....yet), so I wait a year or so before I upgrade. I'm running 4.1 now, but would like to also install a full Dolby 5.1 system now that some 5.1 cards are down to $30 or so. Remote would be a nice option, but since I'm watching movies, I don't really channel surf and I only have to set the volumn level once and all is well. Combo Post: I just bought a house and wired it with Cat 5 cable to most of the rooms. I saw on the earlier post that people were running multiple Cat 5 cables to each room, but I think that is overkill. If I ever need another 'drop', I just add a cheap 10/100 switch and uplink it to the switch in my office. The only thing I would strongly suggest is an ethernet drop (or 2) in the kitchen. I've got an old Dell laptop (P-166) that I would love to put on the counter to do general surfing or email, but I didn't think of this when I was building the house. Caveat emptor. I'd also like to do VPN work from my kitchen to control the DVD/DIVX player in the living room to change movies or change the volumn levels. All sorts of neat ideas once you have computers in nearly every room. Now that the 120GB and 160GB drives are out, I've also started downloading the full DVD right to the HD. Just like MP3s all over again. Next year the 300GB drives will be out and I'll be able to have 200 or so DVD/DIVX movies on tap. Hint: if your ripping DVD movies right to the HD, use Smartripper and cut out only the movie and 1 Dolby sound track. Save several GB's of space by not including the additional sound tracks and subtitles that you'll never use anyway (a 5.1 sound track is 300-400MB for a two hour movie).
Religion and science are both 90% crap..but that doesn't negate the other 10%.
I think that rather bringing home entertainment into the computers (i.e. turning a computer into a home entertainment system), the future is giving home entertainment systems computerized components.
How about using smaller computerized components for the system? For instance, using a biscuit-PC as a controller for a surround sound system, and another as a controller for all the lights...etc. No one would think twice about leaving those on. They could connect to each other via ethernet to be able do simple detection tasks. Why waste power, money, and all the extra features that come with a full size PC when you can get it all in a small one?
The parallelism is also much more suited to solving tasks that have to do with a house.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
You are corect. Pointing out the technical similarities misses the point. A PC is in a completely different cultural category from an entertainment device.
For one thing, the expectation of reliability is much higher for an entertainment device. Companies that put software in televisions are therefore held to a higher standard that those who write software for PC's. Needing to reboot a television set ever is unacceptable. The PC has a culture so accepting of unreliability that any report of any bug or security problem on Slashdot generates a number of replies to the effect of "So what? All software has bugs. Get with the times, luser."
Culturally, building an entertainment center around the PC rather than embedding computers in devices will probably either
doubt it, the author talks about how the computer will eliminate virtualy all other standalone devices. maybe he is forgetting about all the people who is reluctant to computer use. I just don't see people having problems to install/operate software thrashing heir good ol' telephone to talk through the pc.
/.
I more likely scenario will be more halfbreeds between computes and electric devices. I can picture my mom replacing the telephone with an ip enabeled telephone, rather than a headset connected to the computer. Most people are "afraid" of new technology, not facinated with it like most people reading
and the part of holograms in 20 years, technology will advanse but we are not living in an galaxy far, far away...
nemo
The Mac, as usual, makes for a good foundation for expanding the theme of home theater...throw in iTunes and a wireless connection and see how good it can really be.
I picked up one of the www.qbex.com entertainment book sized PC's about a year ago as a bare bones. It's got an infra keyboard and a remote control, built in s-video out, ethernet, modem, etc.
:) It just sucks having to get up to change DVD's. :) I suppose I could move the pc near to the couch and just run a long set of rca cables to the tv, but...
:)
Added a nice DVD drive, a bit of ram, biggest IDE disk I could find, a cheap little celeron cpu - no need to go overkill just for playing mp3's, dvd's and mame games.
Hooked it up to my amp and TV, ditched the lame apex dvd player, and a couple of cd jukeboxes (ripped all the CD's to mp3).
(I had to get a nice 25' vga extension cord and a cheap 15" tube on the side for when I have to change things as s-video isn't as clear as vga....)
Got bleem (too bad) and mame, and a good usb joystick. I'm all set.
I hooked it up over ethernet to cable modem for couch surfing.
It kicks ass.
I use the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card. It has 5.1-channel output, which goes into my stereo's DVD input. Works great for listening to MP3s, and watching DVDs, since I use my PC for that too.
I don't have a TV, so I use my trinitron monitor for everything. DVD movies play right on the computer. I plug cable TV into my Voodoo3500 card, same with the dreamcast.
I don't feel like I have compromised anything, except I get to listen to all my mp3s with great quality, and keep the space I save by not having a TV.
Just because a few of us can read write and do a little math, doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the universe
Apple introduced what you are talking about nearly 9 years ago now, it was called MacTV. It was a Mac with a built in TV tuner, and it worked really well, although it was only a 15 inch monitor.
"Smokey, this isn't Nam, there are rules." -Walter
Either the M$ Xbob or the PS/2 is capable in terms of hardware and/or expandable hardware of doing 90% of what most home users want. The Xbob is just a specialized PC running a specialized Windoze XP. Only blessed hardware touches it, so all MS needs to do is decide to clean-up/port/tweak IE/Office/etc and slap on one line of USB printer, ethernet adapter, keybaord, mouse, and VGA monitor adapter (or charge you a fortune for an "Xbox Monitor). 'Fraid yet Gateway? Sony would have to do more work (most likely with Linux) to get the same sort of stuff ported, and I think they have less RAM to deal with for apps.
The only thing preventing it are the companies in question.
*** Sigs are a stupid waste of bandwidth.
Time for Rob & Co. to implement killfiles for we /. users. It should support regular epxressions. No more *[troll]*.
- Since stand-alone HDTV's are so damn expensive
- While DVD players are common in new computers
- And I have a computer anyway
- With a nice, high resolution monitor
Is it possible, now or in the near future, to watch DVD's or play Game Cube at HDTV resolution through a desktop computer?AlpineR
... minimal. "Horrible" DVD player software, crashing Windows 98, unreliable input devices.
If the article describes the general case, it is no wonder these things did not catch on.
-- H. Wilker
Two of them have monitors and keyboards.
The other 48 are in game machines, appliances,
vehicles, etc.
The future of home computing is invisibility.
From memory: it was a moderately fast PC base (not P4 or Gigahertz), with emphasis being put on good A/V components (surround sound, TV tuner, DVD drive, AV-capable and sizeable hard disk, remote control, ...) and proper software. All this was put into a case that looked almost, but not quite like a generic living room AV component until they put a layer of black paint on it. Oh, and to round it off, they inserted an 8" or so colour LCD into the front of the case.
Looked mighty good. I think the price tag for the fully-fledged model was around DM 5500, or USD 2600. This was for parts only; you still have to put it together yourself.
The only thing I am missing when people talk about this is an apartment- or house-area personal broadcasting system: putting all those nice channels coming in over satellite and cable TV, high-speed Internet and other communication links on a nice, uniform 802.11 (or so), and getting small, cheap "receivers" so I can listen to, e.g., cable radio in the bathroom without having to drag a wire in there.
-- H. Wilker
Hmm... not much on Slashdot tonight... Let's see what the Cartoon Channel has instead.
*click of remote*
If you can't beat them, embrace and extend them.
This summer I lived in a house with some other students and we hooked up our DSL router/file server to the TV, slapped a couple of game controllers in it, loaded it up with Divx movies and mp3s, and we had an all purpose entertainment machine. It was great at parties to put a plugin on and turn the lights off.
But, I think if you try to integrate a computer into your home theatre system etc. it works best to just give up on doing real work on it. I personally wouldn't want to sit in the middle of the living room and write a term paper.
As more people start putting computers in places outside the home office I think it will be easier to use them in a more multipurpose way. (I think having a network encourages it too)
When "Your" in your sentence can be replaced with "you are" and still make sense spell it as "you're". When it can't spell as "your".
but most people (including me) don't want to include a computer and software and video cards and sound cards and monitors or displays and etc, etc... into thier home theatre. When it comes to the basic TV/DVD/music experience, who the fuck wants to make it go through 2 billion ICs? Ahh, no one! There is a reason all-in-one remotes sell well- people want their movies quick and easy.
/. crowd loves to hack their Tivo and route their multimedia through a Sun 10k, but the average Joe likes it easy. (I could go with a Windows analogy here about easy, but that would be wrong since Macs are the easiest).
I know that the
It seems that this article wants Aunt Martha to hook here MP3 player into her mainframe to get a sonic overlay over her HDTV videophone, or other some crazy shit. NO!!!! Christ people, they eventually made VCRs that self-programmed their clocks so people wouldn't have to look at the blinking 12:00!!!! General public = not/. and never will be.
Oh well, I will be labeled as a stupid technophobe with no l33t skills. So be it.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
I'm amazed that nobody has mentioned the xbox in this thread. It was reported a couple weeks ago that microsoft have admitted it's a platform that goes way beyond games.
It's a PC, with a broadband connector, a harddisk, and TV outputs. It's Microsoft's living room platform of the future.
Mark these words.
For the last 2 years, since I started listning to MP3's more than audio CD's, I've had my computer wired up to my sterio system in my room. Granted that the quality is not as good as if you would be using a CD player that is directly attached to the Amp, but it does the job.
It could be the old SoundBlaster 16 ISA card to... hmmmm should look into getting a new sound card.
-nuclearsnake
See the forbiden post Here
Is there any reason why a (say)Audigy Dolby Digital 5.1 signal should be worse that a dedicated DVD Dolby Digital output? :)
Also a number of computer "CD" players (incl. DVD & CD-R/W) now have raw S/PDIF output. That will(should?) give "pure" digital CD quality straight to a compatible amp (one with LOTS of digital inputs - I think I'm in the market for a S/PDIF hub
I'm not sure on how well a cheapo DVD drive will do Dolby Digital over S/PDIF. Or are the Dolby channels encoded on disc, and thus not subject to lossy translation by the drives firmware?
BTW will try "voice commands" on my entertainment box - try that with your DVD!
Actually, no. Serifs were added to fonts because it made the ends of the raised characters on the wooden (later: lead) blocks they used to transfer them to paper less prone to breaking. You'll find, therefore, that sans serif fonts started to be used widely (i.e. for large chunks of text, not just decorative headlines and such) only when offset printing became common (1960's or so, I believe).
It just so happens that serifs make a font easier to read as well, but that's a lucky coincidence (and it actually wasn't true for a long while, as you can attest to if you've ever seen facsimiles of poorly set 17th century texts, where the serifs add clutter rather than facilitate reading).
News and bla for computer musicians: http://lomechanik.net/
Having a PC for the HT system or at least complementing an existing system with a PC is a great idea, the problem is noise. In the UK Tiny sold a HT system which looked like a piece of Hi-fi kit but it was just too noisy.
If you locate your PC in another room, then wiring becomes an issue, how do you get sound/video/input devices back into the lounge/theatre in a clean and efficient way.
Also if you do run cables, how many, what about future expansion etc.
I use a Plasma screen with a PC located in the room behind it. I have run 16 high quality 75ohm cables between the two rooms with 2 VGA cables and a USB cables as well. I have 4 PC's connected to the plasma screen via a switch box and use an IR keyboard to control the PC. ALso a USB wireless mouse connected to the USB port.
I can switch PC's from the remote keyboard and control my HT system (I use showshifter). My DVD player (Multichanger) is also located in the other room and an IR extender talks to that from the lounge, S-video and SPDIF come back into the lounge on the 16 way cable run.
2) There's never been a home operating system that could stay up long enough for the function to work.
I don't understand. I've been using MegaPhone on a PowerMac 7200/90 running MacOS 8.1 since, well, since MacOS 8.1 came out. Before that it was running MacOS 7.6. It's never crashed. It sleeps until the GeoPort Telecomm Adapter wakes it up, it takes a message, and goes back to sleep after a few minutes. The PPC601 uses only a couple watts during sleep. I move the mouse when I come home and the machine wakes up, turns on the monitor, and I check the messages. I delete them sometimes, but mostly I just let them go away automatically after two weeks. If I could get broadband at home I'll write an AppleScript to mail the messages to me at work (they're standard sound files). What more do people want?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
At a high level, no there is no reason that it should be worse. In practice though computers are a noisey environment to begin with, this isn't to say you cannot get quality audio out of one just that its very easy to dirty analog signals.
I don't know the Audigy sound card line very well, in particular do they use a breakout box for the analog output? I know the audigy cards come with firewire (IEEE 1394) ports, combine that with a joystick port, mic input, and several analog outputs (for example 3 minijack or 6 RCA jacks) and you have a very crowded card. The reason I mention a breakout box is for the possibility that it may offer RCA connectors as opposed to minijacks which are considerably more noise prone. A breakout box does not necessarily remove the possibility of the computer dirtying the signal either, but provided that breakout boxes cable is nicely sheilded it may help.
Regarding the S/PDIF output, reread my comment, I suggested using the digital output if you integrate a computer into your hometheater.
Dolby Digital 5.1 is just that, digital 5.1 channel sound on the DVD, therefore unless the manufacturer did something very stupid whats on the disc should go out the digital output (S/PDFI in the case of most PC sound cards although a S/PDIF->Optical converter can be purchased or created cheaply/easily).
Unfortunately digital audio is nothing more than a bit of streams afaik. Lacking any proper protocol to identify sources the hub you speak of would have to be more like a AB switchbox which would be of limited usefulness without a wireless remote. Considering most new A/V receivers come with a gaggle of inputs that can be navigated via remote and the onscreen display I think you'd probably be better off with a new receiver with enough inputs.
Regarding voice commands: I'm not a big proponent of voice recognition for general control. In a home theater envritonment there would be too much chance for accidental triggering by dialog in a movie so it would require a activation button (similar to that used in the Mercedes in car voice recognition which works remarkably well). If you are going to hold onto a remote to activate the remote commands, why not just press the buttons. This isn't to say its a useless idea just that it would need some serious finessing to be really usable (maybe by differencnig the microphone input and the audio source currently being played?).
-- Button up, your ignorance is showing